Please don't shop at Fry's Electronics

Could you, please? Over the past few days I spent almost $600 there, and I feel really, really, really bad about it.

Sure, there are other stores I don't like and I don't enjoy spending money at. And, there are other stores I completely boycott, and have for years. Unfortunately, Fry's is different. First, it's frequently very difficult to shop somewhere else, and second, shopping there makes me feel really, really, really bad.

Since I spent almost $600 there, if I can convince my bloggees who are going to spend at least that amount on computing equipment to spend it somewhere else, I won't feel that bad. Could you, could you please?

Also, I'd like to suggest avoiding refurbished eMachines. Sure, the price at Fry's wasn't that bad. And, I got a couple day's use out of the machine. Unfortunately, last night I was simply typing into a web form much like this when suddenly the screen went black, just as if the eMachine had lost power. It had not lost power, it had just decided to shut down for some reason. The lights were on, but no computer people were home. Turning the power off and turning the computer on again didn't work. I let it sit a while, and it did restart OK, but then it clunked out. This morning it did the same thing, so I took advantage of one of its working moments to wipe the disk and I returned it.

Fry's didn't give me any problems with refunding my money so, like a sucker, instead of just taking my money and running far far away, I used it to buy another system from them. This is a well-known brand name. You're probably heard of them: Great Quality. What's that you say, you've never heard of them? Well, they really are a well-known brand. Bear in mind, this is the Great Quality at 34-I Chung Lo Fat Way, Taiwan City, Taiwan, not the Great Quality on Wong Way. Perhaps I'll post a graphic of their logo, I'm sure that will jog your memory of this great brand.

11/28/04 UPDATE: The GQ machine has been sitting here unused for a few months now. It worked OK for a while, but then it started crashing at unexpected times. Things would be going along OK, but I'd move the mouse over something and it would crash. And, after restarting Windows wouldn't load. I'd turn the power off and it still wouldn't load Windows. Over and over and over again. My best guess is the problem is related to Kingston RAM that I installed, because it works fine with just the original RAM, but it's almost unusable without extra RAM. At some point I'll see if setting the wait state to some long value in the CMOS screen works. I had narrowed the problem down to the RAM after the time period during which I could have returned the RAM to... Fry's. Please, please, please don't shop there. Let's spread our collective money around.

Comments

I use these computer exclusively for desktop computers. Out of the box, they have linux installed! The drivers are fully functional and compatable! Try that with a dell (nothing but trouble)! Fry's carries the memory for them, and you can test out the actual computer and its monitor in the store. How can you beat that?

The cases are solid, easy to access and well assembled. Nothing needs to be removed to insert more memory. It can boot over the lan. Swap in suse linux and it makes a fantastic desktop system to rival any windows system.

I run several of them with no swap partition (1 gb ram added) and they are working fantastically!

With a gigabit ethernet card, they can sustain 4 megs/sec network transfer to and from other gigabit systmes.

I recommend a GQ pc for all non-server office tasks.

If anyone has any questions or needs help configuring one of these systems in an office environment, drop me a line.

Thanks
stoobers@gmail.com

Don't freaking buy gq pc's I seen them and the hardware is really crappy. All generic parts and took like 3$ to manufactor.

Say what you want about GQ, but the $ 99 machine Fry's sold on Black Friday was an absolute steal. I bought the $ 99 machine they sold a year ago and it's been running 24/7 ever since, under extensive use. It was exactly what I needed, 40 GB drive, CDROM, 10/100. I just added 128 M RAM and pulled out the modem. There's nothing wrong with shopping at Fry's, if you know more than the salesperson. Which isn't hard. And you know precisely what you want.

Just got a "Great Quality" El Cheapo model as a third PC, and quite frankly, it's great. It works. It was cheap. Only spend 300 bucks, although I'm going to spend 50 pucks more on RAM online. Athlon 2200 works for me. Building a comparable system from components and barebones would have run at least $100-$200 bucks more. Yea, the brand is laughable and the logo looks like someone drew it on with a Sharpie, but hell it has Windows XP Home included and I had it online about 5 minutes after opening the box.

You really are dumb!!! For starters, you never buy pre-built units cause ALL of them are crap (even dell and hp but they do have slight advantages. if you need massive copy systems and can pay to return for repairs) All those systems are hard to upgrade a good %80 of the time (oh, and real life stats not some out of my ass) and are going to the manufacturers office %50 of the time. Second, If you do halft to buy one...you don't go for the most chinciest. E-Machines? What the hell the E stands for?! Excellent? Extravagant? everyones choice?! NO, IT STANDS FOR ECONOMICAL!!! Frys did not fuck you, you opened up your cheeks for e-machines. Frys dealt with you how they deal with everyone. but then you said "i want it up some more" so you decided to take your money and waste it on a "Great Quality PC?!? HOWS THAT ANY BETTER!!! You probrably thought"it's gotta be good cause it says on the box!" And i like your detective work finding their address. How bout doing that BEFORE IT HAPPENS!!! another example why 911 was you guys fucking up at your worst! Maybe you got the money to spend for assfuckings (wait you don't cause you BEG fools to support your loser blog) but next time make it yourself!! you may not know how but you can always hire a skilled illegal (me) to do it :)

You want support?! Support these brown nutz!!!